Will Nintendo ever be king again?
Short answer, no.
Although, I think they'll still dominate the handheld industry.
But as for the major consoles, no. Nintendo advertises its consoles as really "kiddy" and, I don't think it's really the kids that are the major market anymore.
Not to mention that even young kids don't really want to play kiddy games anymore. They seem much more interested in games with good graphics and action rather than that "nintendo magic".
Honestly I believe the N64 was a bit of a flop in a way as well. Looking back, every single game on the N64 was just a block adventure game featuring the same characters that always appear in nintendo games... and they had like a whopping one company making games for them (RARE). Their refusal to use a cd-based system also resulted in Squaresoft jumping ships to playstation for the new final fantasy game, which ended up being one of the best selling series to date (as far as I know).
And unfortunately Nintendo is trying too hard to be king again and it's just not going to happen. The mini-dvd and no DVD player thing with the gamecube was a mistake. Making Zelda cel-shaded was a mistake. Releasing the console with cartoonish and childish games like Luigi's mansion was also a mistake. This whole GBA connectivity thing worked with some games, but forcing peopel to use them on games like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, was also a mistake. Nintendo are just taking steps backwards.
Which is a shame... because I truly do think that nintendo has the best games because... well, their first party and second party games are the best. Metroid, Zelda, Mario, Starfox, F-zero, Mario Kart, etc... You're not going to find these high quality games on another console.
And yes, I do believe Nintendo did make a profit with the gamecube and the other companies didn't (Sony and Microsoft were losing large amounts of money each console sold and were planning to make moneyt on software...). But not many people know those figures so it hardly projects its image of success.
.. im going to stop rambling now. This seemed like such a good idea before I started writing.
Oops. Sorry